Forensic Anthropology from Individual Identification to Person Identification

1300 Rom J Leg Med [28] 28-39 [2020] DOI: 10.4323/rjlm.2020.28 © 2020 Romanian Society of Legal Medicine FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY FROM INDIVIDUAL IDENTIFICATION TO PERSON IDENTIFICATION. A REVIEW George Cristian Curcă1,2, Iuliana Diac1,2,* 1“Mina Minovici” National Institute of Forensic Medicine, 2“Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania Abstract: Forensic anthropology emerges from the ground centered on skull examinations which were told to give answers to all questions. Identification was the paramount task in front of any anthropologist. Then the skeleton came into interest of the forensic anthropologist as the inflicted trauma lesions examination and taphonomy develops. Forensic anthropology followed a long road from anthropologists such as Lacassagne or Minovici in late 19th century until the recently use of stable isotopes in the late decade. Several historical periods were stepped on. Whenever the forensic anthropologist is a forensic doctor specialist born in legal medicine or an anthropologist with legal medicine competence, forensic anthropology examination need interdisciplinary teams for broadening expertise and competence. We no longer call forensic anthropology a physical specialty because even if the tasks gravity around the human remains, all modern technologies, i.e. micro-XRF, micro-CT, stable isotopes, spectroscopy, etc., allows reconstitution not only of the physical elements of a dead individual but of a living individual, receiving a physionomy, a way of life and finally, a name and a model of consciousness to rebuild and recover the person of the deceased individual. Therefore, another paradigmatic change has moved anthropology with its tasks and methods from individual identification to person identification. Modern values in forensic anthropology and generally speaking on anthropology mirror the moral values of the scientific European space in 1937 made vocal at the tribune of the 17th Congress of International Anthropology in Bucharest, a rare paradox for a Congress of anthropology in an European space full of eugenics where the great force of science and reconciliation suppressed all negative concepts and behaviours. We could define forensic anthropology as a medical specialization that, at the request of justice, aims to identify all human remains, the circumstances in which those individuals died and lived to conclude finally to a person identification. Key words: forensic anthropology, micro-XRF, micro-CT, Fourier spectroscopy, stable isotopes, identification of the individual, identification of the person, rebuilding and recovery of a person. INTRODUCTION post-mortem changes of the human body subjected to the action of the environment and animals), forensic Etymologically speaking, anthropology comes dentistry (the study of the medical aspects of the from the Greek word “anthropos”, which means masticatory apparatus in order to identify a person) “human being”, and logos - “speech”, that is, the study in order to determine one’s sex, age, height, their date, of humans. Within biological anthropology we have cause and circumstances of death, their identity, the forensic anthropology, which focuses its study to also diseases they suffered from, but also their eating and meet the demands of justice as a specialization with life habits, where they lived, or if there were traces of a pronounced applied characteristic; it makes use violence or traumatic injuries suffered before, during or of modern technological developments to analyze after their death. decomposed human bodies or their remains, especially “Dead people will tell their story” - an old from the perspective of establishing their identity [1]. aphorism born when in 1889, at the very beginning Forensic (physical) anthropology collaborates of forensic anthropology [2], Alexandre Lacassagne, with forensic pathology (the study of organic and a professor of forensic medicine in Lyon, solved, like traumatic injuries), forensic archeology (methods of a “French Sherlock Holmes”, a murder where the identifying, excavating, protecting and preserving unidentified dead body was cut into pieces. During the forensic artifacts), forensic taphonomy (the study of same period and with the same intensity, in Romania *Correspondence to: Iuliana Diac, E-mail: [email protected] 28 Forensic anthropology from individual identification to person identification professor Mina Minovici was leading the development The development stages of forensic of forensic anthropology within the forensic medicine anthropology worldwide specialization [3, 4]. After about 100 years of forensic In our opinion, one can summarize two anthropology, in 1988, professor Mehmet Yaşar Ișcan development periods for forensic anthropology: a wrote in a scientific article for a large professional historical period and a modern period. audience that forensic anthropology arose from the The historical period begins in the early 1890s. need of the medical and legal systems to determine Through his entire professional activity professor Mina the characteristics of an individual; and that this Minovici closely connected legal medicine and forensic specialization, as it’s in a development process, needs anthropology as a subspecialty of legal medicine. In scientific proofing methods so that “the role of the Romania this historical period was institutionally forensic anthropologist is fully understood and accepted supported from the beginning by the activity of the by both the anthropological scientific community and Institute of Forensic Medicine from Bucharest, founded the forensic one”. [5]. by professor Mina Minovici in 1892. His scientific views Professor MY Ișcan’s clairvoyance was were critical on the Lombrosian theory, on “moral confirmed and the development of molecular biology madness of the criminal” and on the “stigmas of the techniques in close connection to the legal system inborn criminal” and well-known [9]. He did not shy counted as a decisive step in the identification of a away from talking from the dais of the International person; this was a valuable aid for forensic anthropology Anthropology Congress about his scientific but did not replace it: thus the DNA analytical methods, reservations regarding the Lombrosian theory; as such, especially PCR (polymerase chain reaction), as methods he was not a supporter of eugenics. He said, “According of amplifying the infinitesimal amounts of DNA that to Lombroso, criminals have a stigma of degeneracy can still be found in altered bone fragments, have led to which would allow to identify them in advance. Well, I the development of judicial genetics [6]. have not come across any of these stigmas.” [10]. However, jurisprudence requires that the On March 15, 1892 in Bucharest professor methods and investigations provide scientific results Mina Minovici set up the anthropometric service as a which are reliable [7, 8], have been tested and scientifically unit of the Ministry of Justice and the criminal record peer reviewed [7, 8], have a presentation of the error rate, (“Catalog of convicts from all over the country”). can be “acceptable” and, furthermore, have a “general Between 1892 and 1896 he undertook a comprehensive acceptance” [8] within the scientific community which anthropological study on 7,217 cases (5,980 men, is then accountable for them (Daubert vs. Merrell Dow 494 women, 743 children, with a total of 20 ethnic Pharmaceuticals (113 S. Ct. 2786) [7]. groups), applying the Bertillon system of identification In Romania, professor Mina Minovici (1892), based on anthropometric measurements. He followed followed by professor Nicolae Minovici (1918) and up on some of these cases after the death of the their forensic schools started a complex education of subjects as well: he methodically, scientifically and forensic anthropology within the forensic medicine anthropologically analyzed the anatomical landmarks profession which still continues today, as the forensic of various criminals’ bones and skulls; he also did an anthropology course is part of the mandatory curricula evaluation from a broader ethnic and anthropological for the forensic medicine specialization. perspective, putting together the second largest 29 G.C. Curcă and I. Diac anthropological collection in the country after professor formation of specialists in legal medicine and forensic Francisc Rainer’s one. Both collections can be studied anthropology which still continues today: forensic today at the Fr. Rainer Institute of Anthropology and, anthropology is part of the curricula for the forensic respectively, at the museum of the National Institute of medicine specialization. Forensic Medicine Mina Minovici in Bucharest. As a result, in our country forensic Professor Nicolae Minovici, as the director of anthropology as a subfield of forensic activity was the anthropology and identification service, continued practiced by experts trained at the National Institute of his older brother’s research [11] but also supported, in Forensic Medicine Mina Minovici Bucharest as a center the early 1900s, the development of dactyloscopy and of excellence since 1890 by professor Mina Minovici of the identification of dead bodies by reconstructing (1857-1933), professor Theodor Vasiliu (1897- 1961) their facies (including the prosthesis of the globes) and [12], Dr. Cantemir Riscuția (1923-2003) [13], professor photographing them afterwards. But perhaps the apex Viorel Emanoil Panaitescu (1938-2017) [14], but also of the importance

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